Helping out our furry friends

Date : 22nd May 2011
Time : 8.30am
Venue : Sungai Buloh
Event : Visit to Furry Friends Farm

It was a bright and beautiful Sunday morning (^^)

Of course I would say that because I woke up late again for my appointment with my friends Gun and James. It was about 8.30am when I reached the Subang Jaya KTM station to meet up with Blitz Gun. Together with him is his lovely soulmate, Tanny, his brother, Billy Gun and their cousin, Ron. After he picked me up outside the station, we headed to Kelana Jaya area for dim sum.

The name of the shop slipped my mind. Should've taken a picture or blog on the same day when I came back. But the food were excellent. Luckily James Ong helped us reserved a table. Apparently customers had to wait under the tent outside during peak hours. We had fun and chat while enjoying the food, of course with good food comes "good" pricing. Once we've had our stomachs full, we headed to our destination for the day.

But, before that, a short stop at Shell petrol station to buy some drinks for replenishment purposes. I went a little bit overboard on my purchases. Not just only I've bought a couple of bottles of 100 Plus, I've also purchased 2 National Geographic magazines and 2 Mentos chewing gum. Felt like I was shopping for a family picnic (^^")

So, on to our proper destination...The Furry Friends Farm (^^) Yay!!

An introduction about the location, Furry Friends Farm once started in Pulau Ketam to house the stray dogs and cats. The strays was out of control until the stray dogs feed on the carcases of their own kind. (Curse you heartless, irresponsible owners...You should feel the same thing the strays go through every single day of their miserable lives just to survive for another day!!! How could you have the heart to abandon and abuse them!!!) Apparently the center has moved to Sungai Buloh. (Correct me if I'm wrong Blitz) more details can be referred to my fellow blogger/driver Blitz Gun at http://blitzgun.blogspot.com/2011/05/second-chances.html


The place is run by the owner Sabrina Yeap and volunteers. Yes, the place only relies on volunteers to help take care of the strays and the center's needs. Funding for the daily consumables for the dogs and cats are already an issue itself.

Back to the story, when we've reached the location, we were greeted by one of the volunteers who helped take care of the stray cats and the owner Ms. Sabrina. We were to divide among ourselves as to who should prepare the meal and who will be cleaning the enclosures. After doing so, the next question she asked was..."Did you bring any gloves?" That was answered by the unanimous "Ehhhhhh...." from myself, James, Billy and Ron.

The previous night, we were told to bring the following items:
1) A spare change of clothes after all the hard work
2) A few bottles  of water to replenish our fluid level
3) A mask if necessary
4) A pair of slippers or shoes
BUT NO INDICATION ABOUT GLOVES (although I did considered bringing a pair myself)

After which, Sabrina lead us to the location for our first task...

Jeng Jeng Jeng...!!!

Our first task was to clean the enclosure of any unwanted items and arrange the cement drains in a parallel manner. Yes, the drains shown in the picture below...

It was tough work cleaning the enclosure but with the cooperation among the 4 of us (ie. myself, James, Billy and Ron), we managed to complete the task. And found something else in the process.

A new life in the making...

Now, before anyone goes and misunderstood what is shown above. These are not turtle eggs (Nice one Aaric) or chicken eggs. But it could be a monitor lizard's or worse...a snake's. The size of the eggs are almost the same as little pebbles. Luckily Momma was not around when we were cleaning.

We took a short break and I went to take some pictures of another kind of furry resident. The cats (^w^) like the ones below...

There are separate enclosures for the dogs and cats. Even up to the point that healthy cats and diseased cats are isolated as well. What kind of disease might a cat have? Well, leukaemia is one...and FIV. What is FIV? It's the abbreviation for Feline Immunodeficiency Virus. Now doesn't that sounds familiar? Well, it is the feline equivalent of HIV. Just a scratch from a diseased cat will transmit the virus to a healthy cat. (Don't worry, humans are not affected by the disease. More reference can be made to the following site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feline_immunodeficiency_virus).

Our next task after the break was to become Poop Patrols...(Fun...yeah right) starting with...

Ron (on the left) and Billy...!!! (Applause)

If you think bringing a mask is good enough for the job, think again!! You might as well bring a biohazard suit. The smell is really gagging. (Which the 3 of us suffered without the use of masks.) Equipped with only a broom and dustpan, we started on our noble task and it was tiring and disgusting. But someone has to do it. There were other volunteers that day, some were assisting the cats and some were helping repairing the enclosures and washing the trays for their meals. After a while, the Poop Patrol duty has been passed onto yours truly as Billy and Ron helped on washing the trays and containers.

Trust me when I say it is one of the most difficult task to do. Looking and scooping the poop, gagging occasionally and when you turn around, a fresh pile is waiting. If you think it's disgusting and you don't wanna do it, how do you think Sabrina feels when she has to run the center by herself during the weekdays. Once done with the Poop Patrol, the next step is to rinse the enclosure and to sweep the area. After I've completed the tasks, I took a break again and back to take some pictures (^^).

This fella only wants some TLC

Cats doing their best in the hot afternoon

An unexpected furry visitor

Some timid little kittens

Teddy Bear...!!! (Seriously, that's his name) I liked him on first sight (^^)

This guy wants some TLC too

Just taking for fun (^^")

Doing volunteer job is very tiring

Once I've returned from my Poop Patrol duty, my next task is to be an Egg Cracker. The reason? The meal for the dogs are rice mixed with pumpkin, bread and omelette. It was a slow and difficult process because we need to be careful as there are rotten eggs and we're not sure when we'll get lucky. In my case, at a ratio of 50 eggs, about 1/5 of them are rotten. This were not much easier as the electricity kept on tripping. After the electrician investigated, the reason is that one of the plugs cannot be overloaded with two rice cookers. So, not just only the meals were significantly delayed, we had to be careful as well when we were cooking the rice. The rice cookers are not those ordinary ones that we use at home everyday. They were HUGE, like those used for big catering events.

As the meals are not fully prepared, they had to prioritize the feeding time for the puppies and weaker dogs. Knowing that food is coming, the dogs made quite a commotion and wanted to barge into the kitchen area. My task has now changed to...Food Guardian (I seem to make quite a few names for myself...Lol). As we fed some of the dogs which were kept in the kitchen area, the more aggressive ones squabbled over their share of the food. Just look at some of the pictures below on the preparation process.

No...!!! Gun is not cooking for us. It's for the dogs

Tanny working on the rice

Billy giving some TLC

Taking a break in between the chaos

Being a volunteer is never an easy job which demands a lot of energy and commitment

The dogs taking a rest after their meal 

By the time we left, it was around 6.30pm. Initially we wanted to stay until all of the food is cooked but Sabrina assured us that she will take over and it's best for us to leave before it gets too dark. James drove home while the rest of us decided to shower and change at Tanny's place which was nearer. The other reason that we wanted to go to her house was because they have a jakooozieee (^^) Awesome...!! *Two thumbs up*

We fooled around for a while before taking our showers and ended our day with dinner at SS2 at the area famous for the stalls of food. (I'm in food heaven...*Teary eyes*)

Dogs and cats are amazing animals. They can be loyal and love you more in return as long as they get tender loving care. Actually, not only dogs and cats, but pets in general. So, to the owners out there, if you ever thought of abandoning these creatures and hope you can live on with it. Think thoroughly before you even do it.

A Fun Day To Do Volunteering Work

Date : 8th May, 2011
Time : 8am - 7pm
Venue : Orang Asli settlement, Hulu Melaka, Serendah, Rawang
Event : WOW Day - Family day with the Orang Asli and their families

It was a cool morning when I woke up at 6am. Only to realise that I have overslept. The best part was, I've already set the handphone alarm to go off at 4am and 5am the night before. (OO) I had to rush to steam my breakfast from Friday's leftover supper (The Big Pau from Mee Boon Dim Sum, Jalan Ipoh) bathing, brushing teeth, changing into my sportswear and packing. All within half an hour before I had to leave to the Segambut KTM  station.

As I got out of my neighbourhood, a bus came along just in time. It was only a few minutes to reach the KTM station. But, knowing the "timeliness" of our local railway system. It's guaranteed that I'll be late. So I notified the friend who invited me for the event Aaric and Gun who is also volunteering for that day. A few minutes later, Aaric sent me the contact of the person in charge of transport and I've already settled my transport issues.

To cut the story short, I'll skip my breakfast part and directly to the part where I've arrived in the Orang Asli settlement. The previous night, I've received a message from the organising team saying that once we entered the area, there will be no handphone reception at all. My phone only showed "Emergency Calls Only" when we've entered the area. There were canopies, chairs, sound systems and prizes neatly arranged at the field whereas nearby, there is an inflatable slide for the children to play in. Poles and tapes marked the border of the field decorated with balloons. As the morning continues, all volunteers are separated into their respective teams with their tasks for the day. I'm assigned to the F & B team to handle the lunch and drinks for the volunteers and residents

As it was early and there were too many of us, I decided to help out in the babysitting section at the inflatable slides. As I reached there, the kids were entering and playing. Taking turns to let others in although some were quite reluctant to exit. There were activities lined up for them, some of the activities include gunny-sack race and drawing competition for the kids, balloon stepping and musical chairs for the adults (which can turn out to be quite rough as usual for musical chairs).

For lunch, we have catering food, ice-cream and pastries. It was hectic as people lined up to take food for their families. It was a huge crowd but it is evident that the residents and their children enjoyed the meal. As we took the time off during lunch, the residents entertained themselves with their singing. The volunteers even did a dance to "Baby" by Justin Bieber as one of the volunteer's son sang the song.

After everyone has enjoyed their lunch, we had the prize giving ceremony. During that time, I'm back into babysitting duty at the inflatable. The children were very determined and quite selfish on playing at the inflatable. To solve this, I actually went inside to the inflatable and attempt at crowd control. I ended up being the "Hantu Cina" that eats up little kids if they don't listen and exit the inflatable for the other kids' turn. There were some I had to wrestle, carry, even pretend to bite their necks just for fun. I feel so evil doing that.

It was a lot of fun playing with the kids. Even if it's really tiring to take care of them. The Guest of Honor arrived in the afternoon for the formal side of the event. There was even a local television crew to cover the event. Once the event was over, we packed up a bit before we call it a day.

For some of us, we had a little trip further up to the waterfall to have a cool dip after a long day under the hot sun. At first I was reluctant to go into the water as I didn't bring any spare clothes to change. But, Aaric insisted and he said he doesn't mind if the seat gets wet. Then again, I still felt a bit hesitant at that time. But I finally gave in upon Aaric's insistence. I have never regretted my decision as the water was cool and refreshing. We had a bit of fun splashing around and laughing. In the process, I got to know two new friends who are Alex Teo and Wilson Lim.

To be able to help out other people and do service to the community, it makes me feel satisfied. This is most probably the main reason why I never get tired after joining Rotaract for 7 years already. Which is a decision I have never regretted since the day I joined such a wonderful organisation and got to know all the amazing people.

(^^)